The US president, Donald Trump has taunted North Korea’s leader, boasting that his nuclear button is “much bigger” and “more powerful” than his.

Trump’s tweet is the latest contribution to the bickering feud between the nuclear-armed leaders.

The tweet comes after Kim Jon-un used his New Year’s Day speech to warn the United States that his country’s nuclear forces were now “completed”, adding that the nuclear launch button was always within arms reach. During the speech, Kim also announced that he was “open to dialogue” with the South, and would send a delegation to the Winter Olympics.

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!

Reacting on CNN, Democratic congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut said Trump’s tweet has “Freudians” abuzz and shows an impulse “to demonstrate that his is bigger and stronger than anybody else’s”.

Himes added that “it really doesn’t matter what the president of the United States says any more because it’s so bizarre, strange, not true, infantile”.

Eliot Cohen, a former top official in George W Bush administration and a known Trump critic said the president’s pronouncement was “spoken like a petulant 10-year-old”.

“But one with nuclear weapons – for real – at his disposal,” Cohen said. “How responsible people around him, or supporting him, can dismiss this or laugh it off is beyond me.”

Trump also used his Tuesday evening to tweet about threatening to cut off aid to Palestinians, saying the US received "no appreciation or respect" in return for its aid.

He threatened to cut funding for the Palestinian Authority unless it recommences peace talks.

It's not only Pakistan that we pay billions of dollars to for nothing, but also many other countries, and others. As an example, we pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue...

The comments came after the US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said during a media conference that the US would cut funds to UNRWA, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, unless the Palestinian Authority went back to the negotiating table.

Israel’s deputy defence minister, Elli ben Dahan, welcomed Trump’s comments. “Finally the US president tells the Palestinians the truth. These Arabs have cheated the world for years … If the Palestinians refuse to talk, we will benefit. The state of Israel will grow and the settlement project will grow.”

Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) accused Trump of “sabotaging” the peace process, saying he had “not only violated international law”, but also had “single-handedly destroyed the very foundations of peace”.